Critters From My Garden

There aren't many pests in my garden right now as I have been going after the critters like there is no tomorrow. However, there are some that hide from you and it takes a bit of an effort to know that they are there. In this post I present two critters which are quite visible and two which are not so easy to spot.

I saw this tiny fly, half the size of a normal housefly maybe even less, sitting on a leaf and sunning itself. This little fly looks stunning in metallic green color which shines brightly in the sunshine. I went to work at once with my phone.

Ready to take off

I took pictures of the fly from different angles mainly to get a better look at it. This fly like any other critter wouldn't sit still on one leaf for more than a second. However, I still managed to get a few shots from different angles.

Do you see why its called the longlegged fly?

Google tells me that this is Condylostylus from the dolichopodidae family also known as longlegged flies.These are helpful critters in the garden as they eat other garden pests. These creatures are not harmful to humans as they do not cause/spread diseases or bite people.

Look at those eyes.

These flies are the size of mosquitoes and look like them too but for their bright green metallic color.

This orange, crabby, scaly looking insect is about 2-3 mm long and wide. This looks like a mealy bug in orange hue. Google tells me that this is Lecandiaspididae and their false scales could come in colors ranging from yellow to reddish-brown.

My hibiscus had stopped flowering midway through the flowering season this always makes me cautious. When I inspected the plant closely I discovered some color on the trunk and branches, at first I assumed it was natural color. Nonetheless, within a couple of days the trunk and the branches of the hibiscus were more colorful. They were infested with these bugs. I took pictures to have a closer look and this is what I found.

After getting rid of these bugs with a regular spray of neem oil and dish wash soap the plant is blooming quite nicely now. Now that I know what to look for in my hibiscus if they stop flowering I am also confident about how to handle these critters.

Do you notice the head between the 2nd and the 3rd twigs from the top?

The third kind of critter is a strange one I haven't seen before. This one is camouflaged so well that I didn't suspect anything. My blue daze creeper has leaves that are half bitten all over. I suspected grasshoppers or crickets to be the villains. Yesterday, I noticed some twigs hanging from a leaf. This seemed creepy to me.

I tried to pull them off but the twigs would not come off. I took the leaf off the plant to get a closer look as the leaf in question was at a higher level. I laid the leaf on another plant and watched it for a while. It was then I noticed a critter hiding inside the twigs eating the leaves.

I am not sure if you can see the critter in this image because it had withdrawn its head into the twigs by now. You can still see how much of this leaf it has eaten and a part of it body still showing through. I have never seen anything like this before. Have you?

This is a mealy bug, it usually infests my okra and hibiscus plants among others. These multiply very fast and suck the juice of the plants. The plants then do not produce flowers or fruits and slowly fade away. These bugs have the power to kill huge bushes (almost small trees) of hibiscus if left unnoticed. Spraying neem leaf and soap solution regularly is enough to kill these bugs.

Have you seen any of these bugs before? Please let me know in the comment section.

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